Kaspersky Anti-Virus

All of the most significant independent testing labs award Kaspersky Anti-Virus their very highest accolades. While it didn’t fare as well in some of my hands-on tests, there’s just no arguing with that kind of praise from the labs. And while you can get most of this product’s features in the free edition, the powerful System Watcher, with its behavior-based detection, is only available to paying customers.

Kaspersky remains an Editors’ Choice for antivirus protection, but in a field of almost three dozen commercial antivirus utilities, there’s room at the top. Like Kaspersky, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus gets top scores from the independent labs. Despite the name, Symantec Norton AntiVirus Basic goes beyond the basics, with intrusion prevention, spam filtering, password management and more. Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus is tiny and light on system resources, and its journal-and-rollback system lets it reverse the effects of tough malware, even ransomware. And McAfee AntiVirus Plus protects all of your devices. One of these top products should fit your needs precisely.

Kaspersky Total Security delivers one of the most complete defensive arrays of any malware program, with everything from a password manager to file backup, encryption and shredding. Kaspersky Internet Security has about half of Total Security’s features, including a firewall, parental controls and secure browser.

But the entry-level Kaspersky Anti-Virus may not be worth paying for, as it has only a couple of more features than Kaspersky Free. For a more full-featured starter antivirus product, we recommend Bitdefender Antivirus Plus. But if you want the best combination of features and protection, bet on Kaspersky Total Security.